Fired sub sues Crawford school district

A substitute teacher from Crawford County is suing a Meadville-area school district, claiming he was fired for reporting suspected child abuse to authorities outside the district's "chain of command."

In a three-count complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Erie, Christopher Harmon said as a teacher he was mandated by law to report to law enforcement information he had received about a minor student having a relationship with her mother's adult paramour.

But, Harmon said, he was terminated for not making the complaint within the "chain of command."

Named as defendants are Crawford Central School District, Meadville High School Principal John Higgins and Superintendent Charles Heller.

Harmon's lawyer, Samuel Cordes of Pittsburgh, could not be reached for comment.

Richard Perhacs, the district's labor attorney, said the defendants plan to fight the claim.

He said Harmon was dropped from the substitute list not for the reasons he alleges, but because Harmon "had a confrontation with the principal in which he was insubordinate and disrespectful and then he walked off the job."

The complaint claims the defendants retaliated against Harmon for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech, and because he made a mandated report. It further charges that the defendants violated the state Whistleblower Law, which bars discrimination against a public employee who makes a good faith report of waste or wrongdoing.

Harmon, an Espyville resident, said he was first hired as a substitute for the district in September 2010 and each year received a letter complimenting his work and informing him that he would be hired as a substitute the following year.

He claims that in September, he overheard a conversation in which a student stated her younger sister, a minor, was in a sexual relationship with their mother's paramour, who was believed to be his 40s.

Harmon said he believed that the crime of statutory rape might have been committed. As a teacher, he said, he was mandated to report it.

Harmon said when he told the student he had a duty to report what he had heard her saying, she went to Higgins and asked him not to report it. The principal, in turn, Harmon claims, "attempted to intimidate and dissuade" Harmon from reporting the suspected child abuse "outside the chain of command."

Harmon further claims Higgins tried to blackmail Harmon and threatened to take away his licensure as a substitute teacher.

Harmon said he made a report of suspect child abuse on Sept. 27 to Heller, state police, ChildLine, and the state Department of Public Welfare.

He said Heller sent him a letter on Sept. 28 firing him. The letter said he was being terminated because of his "behavior" the previous day.

LISA THOMPSON can be reached at 870-1802 or by e-mail. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNthompson.